Senior Gemma Halim and freshman Olya Batsula won their doubles match at No. 3 over UNCG.

Friday, April 22, 2005

CHARLESTON, S.C. (April 22, 2005) -

The fourth seeded East Tennessee State University women's tennis team defeated the fifth seeded UNC Greensboro Spartans in a 4-1 contest Friday morning at the Earle Tennis Center on The Citadel campus. The Bucs, who finished the regular season tied for second with an 8-2 SoCon record improves to 19-6 overall, while the Spartans end their season with an 8-11 record.

ETSU took a one-point lead with a win of the doubles point to start the match. Olya Batsula (Minsk, Belarus) and Gemma Halim (Jakarta, Indonesia) led the way for the Bucs with an 8-1 win at No. 3 over UNCG's Emily Wade and Whitney Miles. Masha Ilina (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Sylwia Ziolkowska (Warsaw, Poland) then captured the point with a win at No. 1. The pair defeated Kate LaCoste and Erica Zabkar by a score of 8-6.

In singles action, Ziolkowska was first to finish for the Bucs. She defeated Wade in a 6-2, 6-4 contest at the No. 3 slot. Batsula then lost her battle at No. 4 to Zabkar 6-3, 6-3. At No. 2, Ilina picked up a win in the third set against Miles (4-6, 6-0, 6-2). The clincher would then come for the Bucs with a win at No. 1 from Sandie Knight (Adamstown, Australia) over Lisa Suggs 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

"Another goal accomplished," stated Head Coach Steve Brooks after the match. "We wanted to not have to play on the first day and we did that, we wanted to stand up with the men's team at the awards banquet and we did that last night and we wanted to reach the semifinals and we did that today with the win. We just have a couple more goals to accomplish."

The Bucs now prepare to face regular season champion Furman University tomorrow April 23 in the semifinals. The match is set to begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Earle Tennis Center.